If you are planning to set up a business in any foreign country you must know very well all the customs, traditions and cultural differences very well. You must be very well known about all the customs which can possible vary. Cultural differences and related communication greatly impact your business in various ways. You can find a large number of different business failure stories and how communication and customs can affect a business. One of the examples is U.S Fragrance manufacturers planned to introduce their men cologne line in North Africa. They launch their product, people used it and they advertise their cologne with an Ad in which a man was shown with a dog in rural area. The fragrance was badly flop in North America just because of unawareness about the culture of North Africa. In North Africa the dog is consider as a symbol of uncleanliness and bad luck. The fragrance manufacturer ignored the facts and did not inquire about the cultural, traditions and customs. Another example which can be help to highlight the importance of cultural differences among various countries and how these customs are important to launch a business internationally is the example of French firm which setup an automated timber mill in East Africa. But the firm could not gain the expected result from this automated timber mill because of inadequate supply of power which is a common problem in East Africa. Eventually company tore down the mill because all the automated machinery can run with the help of electricity and the East Africa still have electricity problem. All these factors collectively failed all the business at East Africa and the French firm suffered a great loss. It happened just because of failure factual survey and lack of knowledge about the circumstances.

You must have complete knowledge about the culture and custom of the society where you are going to invest because the response from the society greatly impact on your business. One of the main factors to review the customs of a society is the communication. Communication is very much essential for international trading. It means that how people of a community response to a new person in their society. They warmly welcome the new comers, irritating behavior to a new person or do not pay attention what happening. You must know all the manners which are commonly used in their society especially the manners while meeting someone and leaving. You must learn how a person is touching to other while greeting and wishing to any other person. Learning all the traditions of a community where you are going to launch your new business is very important and is the part of international trade communication and global sourcing. Here are some skills which you must have to learn and are very must important in terms of international trade communication.

1. It is not the responsibility of other persons to communicate with you so try it by yourself because you have to be in touch with others to introduce yourself.
2. Gain knowledge how to listen to the story from others and evaluate the differences.
3. Be taught how you can give value to other while communicating. Your attitude, your eye contact, your behavior must reflect the respect for others.
4. Give respect and value to the approach and ideas of others and what a person want to share with you and what he want to exchange with you.
5. Be skilled to control yourself in awkward situation. Always be calm and cool even you are in trouble some conditions.
6. Do not disturb with little stuff like costume, conditions and physical appearance.
7. Be tolerant and determined while communicating with a person which belongs to another community.
8. Compare your customs and traditions with the other person’s customs where your traditions and assumptions are different from others.
9. You must have flexible personality so that you can easily adjust in a new community and culture.
10. You maximum information about the culture and customs of a community where you are going to take a start will be valuable for you and your business.
11. Communicate with persons one by one to understand their problems it is better rather than to communicate with a group of people.
12. Investigate about the customs very noticeably to be familiar with when you send your message directly and when to convey message indirectly.

These skills can be very helpful to for international trade communicate in a crossed culture. Apart from verbal communication the written communication skill is also very much important because business communication mainly depend on written documentation and written instruction. Here are few tips for the written international trade communication skills:

1. Instruct the other with a short and precise note that what you exactly want.
2. Communicate and concentrate only on specific terms.
3. Don’t use confused words which are uneasy to understand like idioms, slang and buzz words. Also avoid from abbreviations
4. Always use simple and fluent language which can easily understandable.
5. Try to cover the whole matter in short paragraphs and each paragraph should contain one topic.
6. To increase the readability includes the words like additionally, firstly, secondly, thirdly to make it more convenient to comprehend.

Your way to communication greatly impact on the relationship between you and your audience. Your selection of words to communicate, while addressing with a cross cultural community is very much influence on the listeners. Some where you need to be more formal while communicating with people in another country. But do not exceed the formality in unnatural way.

No doubt the language, cultural and custom differences are the significant barriers to communicate but this problem can be sort out with a broad vision. You can easily adjust in a new environment if you have flexible personality to adapt their culture and to share your own customs with them frankly and friendly. Most of the people are very much stick to their customs and see other group of people according to their own standards like color and race etc. They compare the other groups are consider them inferior. The only cure of this problem is the open mindedness.

International Trade

Since the dawn of civilization and even before that trade has been a central activity in the world markets. There were times when there was no currency and people used to exchange commodities with commodities – a system well known as Barter. Different regions of the world are rich in different resources and all that is traded is ‘comparative advantage’ as a matter of fact whether it is a product, service or capital. Those who are specialized in producing one type of commodity trade it with the other market; this is how trade is characterized. Depending upon the number of traders a trade may be termed as bilateral or multilateral.

Today when we talk about trade, what we actually mean in international trade. Whether it’s about buying a pair of imported leather shoes or cosmetics, medicines or grocery items; some way or the other we are touched by international trade. Globalization, industrial revolution, advancement in technology, fast means of transportation and communication has made it a seamless task to trade across the borders; diversification and a search for low cost raw material and low wages labor being the driving forces. The phenomenon has got high momentum in recent centuries for its impact on the economy of a country that in turn defines its power. This can be understood by the fact that the major sanction on a nation is usually in the form of economic sanctions characterized by a boycott of trade with that country.

Every country has its trade policy that changes over times to facilitate the trade as per new set of circumstances. Trade policies are characterized by certain restrictions from the government, duties, subsidies and quotas – a policy termed as protectionism which is mainly to promote its home industries but such trade barriers may affect the world economy on the whole. That is the reason most of the trade organizations and unions support free trade. Experts believe protectionism as one of the major reasons for the collapse of economies.

International trade organizations that support free trade include European Common Market, G8, GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), WTO (World Trade Organization), IMF (International Monetary Funds) and OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) whereas European Free Trade Association, Free Trade Area of the Americas, North American Free Trade Agreement, Union of South American Nations and South Asian Free Trade Association are some of the free trade agreements that define free trade areas or regions today.

Free trade these days is facing the challenge of recession. During recession as the country’s home industries are declining so there is huge pressure on the government to promote local industries by imposing certain trade barriers like fixing the quotas and imposing duties and taxes on the imports that though helps the country flourish but restricts consumer choices and also hinders global economy overall.